My beloved in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

ON 1ST JANUARY OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE FEAST OF SAINT BASIL THE GREAT

On the 8th day after His birth, Christ received circumcision, as the Old Testament Jewish Law provided. Because He was born and lived in a particular environment, He kept all its regulations and customs. Nevertheless, His circumcision must be interpreted within the theology of the self-emptying (Kenosis) which He accepted for the salvation of the human race.

As the Holy Fathers decided to celebrate the Nativity of Christ on the 25th of December, it is natural that the circumcision, which was performed after eight days, is celebrated on the 1st of January, just eight days after His birth. Therefore on that day, the troparia (hymns) brings out the theological importance of circumcision. This troparion (hymn) is well known: "The Savior, condescending to the race of men, in swaddling clothes, accepted circumcision, He did not abhor the cutting of His flesh..." Just as, out of love and charity, He accepted to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, Christ also accepted the circumcision of His flesh. This extreme condescension and kenosis of Christ is regarded by the Church as a great feast of the Lord.

The circumcision is the cutting off "from around the end part of the male organ". This is done to every male child because it is provided by God's Command which was given at the beginning to Abraham. The relative passage from the Old Testament is the following: "every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised" (Genesis 17:10-12). The same Commandment is given to Moses: "and on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised" (Leviticus 12:3). In conversation with the Jews, Christ reminds them that circumcision was given by Moses, but that it existed before that. "Moses, therefore, gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath" (John 7:22).

Circumcision was linked with godliness, piety, and abiding by the Law, and it indicated the pure Israelite, while the unclean, impious man was indicated by the word for uncircumcised. So circumcision and uncircumcision are opposite concepts and practices, which point to the Jew and Gentile, the pagan.

The rite of circumcision was a painful act, and especially as it was performed at that time. The instruments with which the circumcision was performed were the knife, the razor, and the sharp stone. A characteristic circumcision is that in which Zipporah used a sharp stone to circumcise her son...

"...Circumcision was a mark of recognition that one belonged to the people of God. "So as to be a sign that these people are dedicated by it." According to the interpreters, circumcision in itself was not a testament, but a sign of the testament and agreement...

"...Furthermore, circumcision was also a foreshadowing of baptism which would be given at the appropriate time, through the Incarnation of the Son and Logos/Word of God, because in reality baptism is circumcision of the heart...

"...The ceremony of circumcision, which took place on the 8th day and is also connected with the giving of the name, in the Christian period was joined with the ceremony of "sealing the child, taking a name on the 8th day after his birth". The center of the ceremony is a wonderful prayer which the priest reads to the infant n front of the gates of the Church. The infant is brought by the midwife or by some relative, but not by his own mother, who will come to the church on the 40th day...

"...Furthermore, Christ accepted circumcision in order to show that He had assumed true human nature. And this is very important, for in the early Church a heresy had appeared that was called docetism, which maintained that Christ did not assume true human nature, a real human body, but that it was a seeming and imagined body. This led to the conclusion that Christ was not crucified on the Cross since he did not have a real body, but He deceived the Jews. But such a view does not save man. How can man be saved if Christ did not assume real human nature? Therefore, as Saint Epiphanios says, Christ was circumcised in order to show that "He had in truth taken flesh upon himself."

"...Furthermore, Christ was circumcised in order to teach men that circumcision, which He Himself had given to the Jews, had served humanity and prepared the ground for His own presence (St. Epiphanios). It was not a useless rite. Through circumcision, the Jews had remained faithful to God's Law and had waited for the Messiah.

And lastly, it not only showed that the circumcision was preparing the human race for His presence, but also that it is a type, a prefiguring of the circumcision not done by human hands, which is holy baptism. According to Saint John of Damascus, circumcision was a figure of Baptism. Just as circumcision cuts off from the body a part that is not useful, so by holy Baptism we shed sin, which is not a natural state, but excrement. When we speak of sin which is shed, we mean desire, and of course, not the useful and necessary desire, for it is absolutely impossible for man to live without it, but useless desire and pleasure. Baptism is the circumcision not done by human hands, which does not remove one from one's nation but separates the one who is faithful form the unfaithful one who lives in the same nation...

"...The Holy Fathers of the Church, interpreting the Scriptural passage about the real and spiritual circumcision, which is Christian Baptism, present wonderful theological truths.

"...According to the teaching of Saint Cyril of Alexandria, the Old Testament circumcision did not abolish death, which the New Testament circumcision does. In fact, the person who enters the Church through Baptism becomes a member of the risen Body of Christ. In this way, spiritual death is abolished and there is an assurance of the resurrection of the dead. For if the bodily death remains after Baptism, it is for the sake of cutting out sin.

Saint John of Damascus teaches that to be circumcised is to renounce bodily pleasure and unnecessary and useless desires. Here we see that Baptism is connected with the ascetic life, through which a man is freed from domination by the passions. It is not a matter of disciplining and diminishing the body, but of diminishing and transforming the desires of the soul.

In the teaching of Saint Maximos, we see that circumcision is the anme for cutting off the passionate relation of the soul to the body. The soul and body have a relationship and unity. It is not a question of that, however, but of the passionate relationship, the relationship between soul and body through the passions.

The sayings of the Holy Fathers show that the Old Testament circumcision is internal, spiritual, it is a communion of man with God and an effort to maintain this communion.

In the Old Testament God gave His Law, so as to prepare the people for receiving Christ. Saint John the Evangelist and Theologian says in the prologue to his Gospel: "The Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (St. John 1:17). The Unincarnate Logos/Word gave the Law to Moses in order to cure the people in readiness for receiving the Truth and Grace which came into the world through the Logos/Word of God made flesh, that is to say, Christ. The Mosaic Law, as well as circumcision, also had grace, but this was the so-called purifying energy and grace of God, not His illuminating and deifying energy.

Through Christ, we gain spiritual birth and true sonship. Saint John the Evangelist emphasizes: "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God" (St. John 1:12-13).

Through circumcision, men become good Israelites, God's chosen people. Through Baptism and the family life in Christ, men become children of God, they attain sonship by grace and they conquer death.

Therefore Christ's circumcision suggests to us the circumcision of the heart. Through the sacramental and ascetic life, we become members of the Body of Christ. Christ's condescension becomes our ascent. (Source: The Feasts of the Lord by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos HIEROTHEOS)

Next: Saint Basil the Great

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

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With agape in His Holy Nativity,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George